If Everton’s players thought they were in for an easy ride under Sean Dyche, then they were terribly mistaken.
Day one and there wasn’t a football in sight. Everton’s new boss was ready to test his side’s physical limits.
Appointed as Frank Lampard’s successor, Dyche immediately got down to work. What followed was described by many as an old school approach.
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But in the eyes of Dyche it was about creating a culture that can lift Everton out of the drop zone. The Blues currently find themselves 18th in the Premier League table.
Dyche promised to make the players 'sweat' and bring back some of the basic principles of what Everton have stood for in his first interview as manager.
"Our aim is to put out a team that works, that fights and wears the badge with pride," he said. "There is quality in this squad, but we have to make them shine."
Dyche’s first session saw the return of the beep test. From footage released by the club, it looked like Ben Godfrey and Ellis Simms were the last two players standing.
But it was what happened during that session that caught the eye of supporters. Everton’s players were pictured bending over, out of breath, as Dyche worked his squad into the ground.
In one snap, the new Everton boss could even be seen smiling at one of the players recovering from the physical strain he had been put under. Talk about making an instant impact.
"Certainly no lack of fitness," Dyche told BT Sport ahead of facing Arsenal. "It's often misconstrued these things.
“It's a measure. We've got different measures - I've been doing it a long time. We know what players' bodies can take with the way we want it done.
“There's a lot of misconstrued ideas but that's all it is. I explained that to the players. It's not some kind of beasting.
“It's a measure and I've got years of stats and facts on what the body needs to deliver. We've got a couple of other measures we'll be doing next week, they'll be pleased to know. But it's not about proving a point to them. I explained that to the players."
But before the fitness testing came the bans. Snoods and hats were no longer allowed while players were told they must now wear shin-pads.
The change in approach exposed an unexpected problem for Everton's kit staff when it apparently emerged that the club didn't have enough full length socks in stock to properly kit out the squad for full shin-pad drills.
A flying visit to Sports Direct - the nearest sports shop to Finch Farm - to buy some extra socks was required. But there were further problems however, when, according to reports, the store did not have enough blue pairs in stock to meet demand, forcing the kit man to buy black ones instead.
“This has been going round for years and it drives me mad,” Dyche revealed when asked about the bans.
“Unless I’ve been out of the game for too long, you’re not allowed to wear hats when you play on a Saturday, you’re not allowed to wear snoods when you play on a Saturday and you have to, by the rules, wear shin pads. It is not rocket science.
"Everyone makes the mythical story that it’s hard lines from Sean Dyche. It is just common sense. You train how you play, how can you train how you play if you have 14 snoods on, 15 hats and leggings, no shin pads, white socks, it’s not relevant. I told the players, ‘these myths I’m going to bust them for you right now’.
"I explained to them. There is not a single player here where everything is not explained to them. I’d be surprised if any of them are in the dark on anything. I explain everything to them and the reason behind it."
Asked about the approach from his boss, Alex Iwobi revealed before Monday’s derby: “We all know we have to run.
“That has been added to us. We know with the ball we are very good and we have the players to hurt teams. It was the physical output he [Dyche] was worried about. Now we have shown we can do it, we have to continue with it.
“He said there is no better place to start, especially as Arsenal are top of the table so it was an even greater challenge for us. We looked at it and thought, ‘If we are able to do this then we know we can do it against any team.’”
As well as a focus on fitness, the bans on snoods and hats, Everton’s players were also asked to fill in a questionnaire by their new boss. The questionnaire was handed out on Dyche’s first day - and completed under the cloak of anonymity. Only two first-team players did not submit answers, which were relayed back to the group.
“I didn’t want to lead them anywhere, the questions were as open and as short as I could make it,” Dyche said. “It allowed them the chance to express whatever they thought.
“The thing with 360-degree feedback, as they call it in the business world, is that you have to be ready for the feedback. It is not always great but you have to be open minded.
“Often similar themes come back and I said, ‘If you are telling me them, then they’re things we definitely have to look at.’ Hopefully they’ll respond and flourish. We’ve got to work, it can’t all be fluff.”
Iwobi was not one of those players who failed to complete the questionnaire, revealing: “I filled it in, I haven’t done that since I was at school.
"Holding a pen and you are not signing a shirt - that felt weird! But it was good. You could be as brutally honest as you wanted. You could cuss him if you wanted!
“Nobody did that. There was respect - I will reveal my answers now, I said the team of course wasn’t in a good headspace but we all had that same goal to push up the table.
“The majority has the desire to push the team forward, all of us want to go forward and improve. That is the main idea.”
Dyche enjoyed the perfect start to life at Everton when his side beat Arsenal 1-0 at Goodison Park in his first game in charge. However, the Blues boss tasted defeat for the first time at the hands of Liverpool on Monday night.
Speaking ahead of that game at Anfield, Dyche revealed his 'wheel of fortune' fine system will be making a return after proving successful at former club Burnley. The light-hearted game sees players forced into paying financial penalties or completing tasks likely to encourage camaraderie among the group.
Explaining how this idea first came about at Burnley, Dyche said: "When I first got to Burnley as a new manager, you're trying to impose yourself.
“Some of that worked until around Christmas. Mark Howard, our head of sports science, had heard this rumour about this wheel in rugby, so we got a literal wheel and put numbers and letters on it.
"The numbers were the squad numbers and the letters corresponded with a form of a fine. Some were financial, not many actually, and through seven years of this we've had all sorts of things like, 'if I spin for you and get your number, I have to pay to get your car valeted'. We've had to sing like Elvis, we've had lap dances and there are all these different things.
"To be honest, behind what you think is just the simplicity of fining people or keeping some kind of order, actually we used it to strip people down on their ego and make them realise it is okay for us all to laugh at each other."
Asked to confirm whether the Everton players will soon be experiencing this unique approach to boosting team spirit, Dyche told Soccer AM: "The spin wheel, yeah. It's an unfortunate wheel. We will introduce it.
"It's a bit of fun with the players, keeping some professional standards in a way they can buy into. It's not for the heavy stuff. If there are heavy situations, I deal with that. We use it to keep everyone aligned and to add some twists for things they have to do.
"Luckily we've got a few here who have worked with us before so they can tell them. It's pretty soft starting, we're not going to go in with the heavy stuff. That will come. There's nothing too uncomfortable on it yet, but we do change it every four or five weeks and put new stuff on it."
One man who has been alongside Dyche for some time is James Tarkowski. And he knew exactly what to expect when the former Watford man arrived at Finch Farm.
“We have to improve our standards and standards everywhere, on and off the pitch, and that is what he brings,” the centre-back said.
“I knew that before from working with him. You get on the grass and you expect to work to your maximum level, which everyone should anyway, but he just really pushes you. The lads have all responded and they all seem to be enjoying themselves as well.”
And when asked about his manager’s training methods, Tarkowski said: “People have to concentrate on them things because they can be quite unique these days as you don’t see a lot of teams doing that.
“But as I say, I know him really well and I understand what he is about and the lads have really took to him as a person and a manager. There is no grey area, it is black and white. He tells you exactly what he thinks and he is not afraid to speak his opinion.
“Even if you feel like he might be wrong at times, he is just going to say what he thinks at the time. The lads understand where they stand with him.”
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